Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Creative projects // Selection April 2020

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of designs, or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with our fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see what our customers create when they put their own creative energy in there is amazing.

If you browse around on Etsy or Instagram for some kids fashion you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives that use our fabrics have small home-based businesses sell their projects via the internet and tag us via Instagram. But there are also some bigger fish out they're using our Spoonflower designs for their business. So we see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from the United States and Australie. We selected some cute headbands and shorts for babies and toddlers, some soft blankies, and some cool pet items for your pup. We're also showing you some masks that were made within these past quarantine weeks. Since everyone kinda needs one nowadays, right?

1 // Tahoom
This handmade shop is based in Washington state and run by Mary who’s a mom of two. Her small shop’s been a rapidly growing venture and she creates bows and matching shorts for babies from her home. Her style is a mix of earthy neutrals with boho elements. We’d love to give her a little shout out. We love her cute sets and the tiny models who are the cutest you’ll ever see. Tahoom was named after tahum, which means gorgeous. Pretty spot-on name if you ask us! Curious to see more of her handmade pieces? Check her website

2 // Golden Tales
There are so many businesses that purchase our fabrics over at Spoonflower. And one of our favorites are def the ones that create pieces for pets. Golden Tales is based in Australia and this small shop creates dog accessories like leashes and collars. Their style is fun, playful and colorful and we love showing off some of their pieces. If you’re living down under and looking for some cute pup prezzies, do visit their online shop!



3 // Stella & Lu
We love everything that comes our of this shop! Stella & Lu is run by two ladies: Whitnie and Jessica create blankies. With our super soft minky fabric from Spoonflower they create the most gorgeous baby nursery items. We love their unique, neutral, earthy style. Their consistent style is so satisfying! For their new range of baby accessories they’ve use our newest constellations & moon phase designs that we now see popping up in their shop and on their Insta feed. Every week another one of our designs gets launched. This is the fourth year they’ve been using our designs. And hopefully there’s a lot more to come. Curious to see all prints they have available? Check their shop on Etsy and browse. They have lots of themes and colors to choose from!

4 // Wild Love Designs
This small shop specialized in bags and accessories for women that are wild at heart. We’ve all been dealing with the Covid-19 problems and all over the world people are dusting off their sewing machines and start making face masks. Like so many Spoonflower customers Celeste also created a range of masks these past few weeks. Created from fabric you can find elsewhere in her shop. Lets hope we won’t be needing those face masks much longer! Meanwhile you can grab a cute pair on the Wild Love Designs website.

Top 5 trend colors for the autumn season // Shop our new autumn collection

We've been waiting for the leaves to turn color. And Autumn is finally here. We're loving the palette: muted to bright oranges, shades of brown: cinnamon, rust, ginger. All mixed with soft earthy tones and dark forest greens and navy blues. And we couldn't be more excited to show you this autumn collection overview.

Fall is definitely my personal fave season. I was born in October, so I guess the love for the moody season runs in my blood. I get our and take walks as much as possible before the weather is getting too crazy cold to hang out in the woods. I love seeing the leaves change every time I visit. But fall is also the moment to stay in, cuddle up inside with a cozy blanket. And there's no better season to start some new projects, making clothes, change home-decor, than Autumn season. Change your pillow-cases, add some fresh new prints to the mix. As I am writing this I have to admit: I've been doing some serious Kon Marie-ing today too. My home is ready for some new textiles!

We've created some really adorable woodland animals and turned them into print designs. We also made new Halloween prints and of course we created new animal prints: leopards, cheetahs and panther spots are all in there. And to top it off: some matching abstracts and minimals. We are loving this year's palette. The new Autumn palette was based on 5 new trend colors. These are this years Autumn trend colors.


1 Cinnamon:
We love this soft yellow shade with a hint of brown. It's a perfect gender-neutral to add to your little one's nursery. A great warm base color for your kids room and basic pieces. It's a great neutral that goes with everything. So if you're making some durable pieces, or if you don't want to limit your creations to the season, this is a great pick.

2 Navy:
This dark blue shade creates a beautiful contrast with the warm earthy tones. A strong color perfect for kids nightwear, leggings and baby rompers. This color is great for your babies wardrobe because stains are hard to spot! And it's an easy mix and match color.

3 Rust:
We're not affraid of decay! Last years copper is making room for rust. This stone red/brown color is great for gender neutral pieces. We love how so many tones can be traced back to nature this year. Add some soft pink or cool blue to freshen it with a pop of color. Or go all autumn and add some ochre, ginger or cinnamon to the mix.

4 Forest Green:
Okay, I have to admit every shade of green is a go this year. Emerald, jade, mint. But we picked forest green for our new Autumn palette this year. Because it's looking so damn cute with all the other colors. And we'd love to add some extra green to the cooler season right? We're not saying goodbye just because nature is! Let's be stubborn!

5 Ginger
More of a soft tone and pastels kind peep? Try our ginger prints. Soften things up with this pastel tone. A little more yellow than last years sandy tones. I use ginger in my kitchen every day, how did we never add this shade to our shop before now? Well, we finally did, and looooove seeing how these colors are used by our customers.


The designs shown here are available for licensing. You can license our designs if you'd like to use our prints for your products by sending us an email and send along a screenshot of the designs you'd like to license. All these designs featured here are also available on fabric & wallpaper in our Spoonflower shop. If you need any hand finding the right shade or scale, of need another color version or size for your project? Just send us a message. We're happy to add new versions for you.

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 September 2019

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of designs, or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing.

If you browse around Etsy or if you check Instagram for some kids fashion or accessories you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints every now and then. Most creatives that use our fabrics have small home-based businesses and sell their projects online and tag us via Instagram. But there are also some bigger fish out they're using our Spoonflower designs for their business. We see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from the UK, United States and Canada. This month we selected a whole bunch of best-selling panther & animal print themes turned into the most gorgeous items. We selected some cute bow, some super cool pet accessories and kids fashion pieces. Enjoy our September selection!

1 // Mjolk Russia
We’ve been working for this Russian company for a while now, and this summer they released a bunch of new designs. One of the new prints they licensed was our panther design. They turned them into these adorable baby rompers, blankies and bedding. Next season they’ll be launching another few of our designs and we’re currently working on a new logo for their rebrand. Stay tuned! Visit their website here.

2 // Bloom Headwraps
For her new kids accessories hair collection Haley has chosen some of our fave animal prints. The first one to launch was the pale cheetah print. We just can’t get enough of these adorable pictures popping up in our feed! Check her Insta and stay tuned for all launches. She only has limited editions in her shop. So make sure to write those dates in your planner!





3 // Cute Birds Kids
This fun and playful brand creates beautiful hair ties and bows for little girls. They just released the new autumn collection containing our leopard design. And we are in love! We are so excited to see these adorable items made with our designs. You can join their subscription by signing up on the website.

4 Poppy + Ted
One of our most fave collabs this year was with Paige, who’s the creator of Poppy and Ted dog accessories. She’s been licensing some of our designs and also buys fabric off Spoonflower for limited edition prints for her collections. We wanted to show you two of the panther print creations; the cameo harness and the pink cotton print she has available on collars, leashes and harnesses. Which one is your fave? Check her shop for more prints & styles and all other panther palettes.

5 Monsters and Co
This UK shop turned a bunch of our animal prints in little monster bandana’s. And they also made some cute little bows for our furry friends. For this post we wanted to feature this gorgeous long-haired kitten wearing their pink bandana. The cuteness! Visit their shop for all fun pet accessories.

Top 5 All time fave Little Smilemakers print designs / Fabric & Surface Designs

We’ve been creating print designs for a loooooong time now. Back in the day, it was easy to fill in the gap. There was no such thing as a designer licensing print designs. So business took off quite easily. Nowadays the surface design market is very saturated and most creative academies offer surface design as a course. Not in my days. I have a background in graphic designs and typography. The typography studies let me find the balance in every pattern I create up until today. We started out creating things that just weren’t there yet. And over the years we’ve been doing trend reports and we’ve seen both short and long trend waves come and pass us by. But some designs just never seem to leave our licensing list.

For this post, we selected our 5 most popular print designs to date. Some were made over 10 years ago and got picked up by a trend. Some got popular simply because they ended up in a Chinese database and turned into the most used but also stolen designs. And some are just good designs, thank god for the good designs, right? A properly balanced, color sweet spot print design.

1 // The Scandinavian Hedgehogs
We made these hedgehogs 7 years ago. At first, this surface design was only available on a white background. And most of our best selling pieces are created with a white background first. The white is a crisp clean contrast with any color used. And therefore perfect for baby nursery and clothing pieces. Pure and soft. Now, this design has been licensed all over the world numerous times. And the hedgehogs are also available in versions with gender-specific and gender-neutral backgrounds. This one still remains our best selling design to date.
Shop Hedgehogs here.



2 // The Monochrome Grid
I personally am not a very big fan of checkered designs. But simple basic check prints were missing from our portfolio. I came up with the Monochrome Grid around the same time the hedgehogs were made. I was creating an exclusive design series that was created from raw brush strokes and this grid designs didn't make the cut. Little did I know this would be one of our hot selling designs for years to come.
Shop grid designs here.

3 // Scandinavian Bunnies
There are a couple of evergreen themes in print designs. This bunny design is not a typically popular theme for kids patterns. Around Easter, we always see an increase of bunny interest but this one has been selling like mad for years, all year long. It might be the illustration that is suitable for both babies and older kids but I think it mostly has to do with the fact gender neutral kids products are very popular. And the bunny is not gender-specific like some: cats for girls, dinos for boys. It's fun to see so many different things created with this fabric. It's available in various sizes and colors and available for licensing.
Shop Bunnies here.



4 // Colorful Rainbows
Talking about evergreen designs, this rainbow design certainly is one. This particular design has been our all-time fave gender-specific design and has been licensed for girls clothes and baby nursery. At the moment, the rainbows are also very much on-trend and another rainbow design of ours is rapidly climbing the best selling charts. I am pretty sure this one will keep taking the lead though, the rainbow trend is just a wave and this print is less influenced by trend with its multiple colors and simplistic shape it's a contemporary design. Perfect for girls, even though we also have a version for boys without the pinks, this one remains a hit.
Shop Rainbows here.

5 // Geometric Indian Animals
Our last design finishing off the top 5 faves is our geometric Indian Animals design. Another design suitable for both genders. These animals were licensed to numerous companies, for baby bedding, kids fashion, and new creations made with our Spoonflower fabric keep popping up on our feeds. Definitely one of our fave designs this one. it was a blast coming up with these quirky animals full of personality.
Shop Indian Animals here.

As you can see in this top 5, most of our designs that sell best are not specific to gender. And we love the fact that parents and customers get more conscious about the durability of their products. A great trend! All of these designs are however also available in more girly and boyish tones if you do want to create something specific to gender. They're available in our Spoonflower shop and available to license directly if you wish to use our design for your business. They can be used for all sorts of products, not only on paper or fabric. If you're curious to know more just send us a message or check our website for more info and rates about licensing.

The Lookbook: Inky Fall - New Autumn Trends Fabric Collection & Art Licensing 2019

We can't get enough of these long sun-drenched summer days, but fall is around the corner and we even got so far licensing prints for Valentine's Day already! Yikes! Every year when the heatwave hits the studio, we're busy making fall and winter designs. This collection is based on a series of designs we made a couple of years ago. Exclusively for Veritas Benelux.

This collection was made with pages and pages of inked paper. With dry brushes and pencils. The loose abstract shapes and brush strokes were turned into layered illustrative elements such as flowers and trees digitally. Some were made as illustrative shapes right away, like the palm leaves on top. This collection is a mix of fall with a hint of summer. We love dragging summer elements into September! Simply cuz we don't wanna say goodbye to summer just yet. And these new surface designs make perfect fall clothes and swimwear. We already licensed a few of these but all prints shown here are now available in our Spoonflower shop and available for licensing non-exclusively.

Wanna license print designs for your business? Please send us a message. We’ve also put some more info about licensing on our blog earlier this year, so if you’d like to read more about that and check out if licensing could be something for you read the blog post and find out step-by-step what you need to keep in mind before licensing print designs. Any questions? We’re happy to help. Just reach out!

Wanna be kept in the loop and get exclusive designs right into your mailbox? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date. You’ll get all new print designs right into your inbox. And of course, we’ll keep you informed about what we’re working on.

New collab // Licensed work // Bedhead Hats summer collection

We all want to protect our little ones when they’re playing out in the sun. Wearing a cute half is half the work of getting your little ones get used to wearing something on their hats. I know those things can be a struggle to keep on!You have to admit these three look pretty adorable right? Getting your kids to wear a hat can be such a struggle! So Bedhead Hats created hats with the most adorable prints, with a great fit for all kids sizes and soft detailing.

Bedhead Hats is an Australian run family business that offers comfy and cute hats from the smallest new born baby sizes to outdoorsy and adventurous kids ready to go to school fashionably. We love their baby buckets and swim hats. Such a clever brand! For this fun kids hats brand we license some really cute designs. Unicorns, cacti and our fave: kangaroos. We adorable the little kangaroo hats. What about you? Curious what else this fun shop has to offer? Check out their website and browse around these cool kids pieces.

https://www.bedheadhats.com.au

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 // May 2017

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of design or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing.

If you browse around on Etsy or Instagram for some kids fashion or home decoration you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives with small home based businesses sell their projects via internet and tag us via Instagram. So we see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from Canada, Germany, The Netherlands and the USA. This month we selected a whole bunch of fresh blue colored fabrics, turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and have you seen those baby booties? There was so much to choose from! We have selected some cute baby shoes, leggings, blankets and a cool babynest. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our top 5 May selection.

Hen House Apparel - Umbrella Leggings
Nicole is a mother of two boys living in sunny California who runs a small etsy shop with organic materials and unique prints. You can find a small selection of our designs in her shop, mermaids, guitars, polar bears and our cool umbrella rain design that is featured in this months post. With our umbrella print she has made some cute boys leggings and these are also available in her shop in different sizes. Take a look and enjoy her fun collection of leggings, shorts, head bands and more.

LoveBird BabyNests - Blue hedgehogs
LoveBird BabyNests was founded by Ashley, an adventure seeking, outdoor enthusiast, nutrition and fitness passionate, loving mother of 4 beautiful children. While she was pregnant she decided to take on a sewing project creating a little baby bed that turned out to be a cute little baby nest. After her son was born she it became clear she couldn’t live without it and started making custom BabyNests on request for friends and family. Her business grew and now Ashley has a wonderful little online shop. For her small collection of BabyNests she selected some of our favorite Little Smilemakers fabric. Our hedgehogs is one of this years hot selling fabric and available via Spoonflower. Not having any sewing talent? Don’t worry, you can order a custom BabyNest via her webshop.



Tiny Little Cactus - Blue Baby Booties
Krista visit our shop in The Hague to get her hands on some of our Memphis fabric. She became a fan of our designs and a week later she ordered a whole lot more of our fabric via Spoonflower. When we asked her to tag us in her social media posts, because we are curious what peeps make from our fabric, the most wonderful items popped up. We love anything cute and love this local webshop filled with crafty stuff and everything Kawaii. For this months “Made with” we selected her adorable little baby booties in our abstract pink dashes print. Soft sole shoes, perfect for your little ones tiny feet. Seriously, things don’t get much cuter than this! If you are looking for some baby shoes or if you are a big Kawaii fan like we are check our her website. Such a perfect new born or baby shower gift!

Cover Up Baby Studio - Dino Blankets
Did you know Spoonflower also has a very soft minky fabric which is perfect for nursery blankets?
Mary, who is grandma of two, runs a small Etsy business from her home in Michigan selling fresh and unique new born baby swaddle blankets. We love what she made with our blue dinosaur fabric and love her style which is fun and colorful. Take a look into her shop if you want to get your hands on one of these adorable items.

Glitzerpüppi - Blue Garden Fabric
For this German shop we made this cute blue garden fabric that popped up on our Instagram feed a couple of weeks ago. This print is also available via Spoonflower and we love this cute little new born set: a baby romer and a matching headband was made for this little one. Curious about their own fabric production and available fabric? Take a look into their shop and get your hand on some of our exclusive prints.